The Dempsey Center in Lewiston and the Cancer Community Center in South Portland announced an intent to merge on Monday.
Spokeswoman Dani Colvin says the new entity will be known as the Dempsey Centers and is expected to be in operation by early 2018.
“It’ll just really increase not only the number of people we serve, but also the amount of fundraising we can do and the grants we can apply for, and we can just incorporate best practices from both organizations across the board,” she says.
The Dempsey Center will become independent from Central Maine Healthcare, one of its founding partners. Colvin says the two organizations have slightly different missions, which makes it challenging to apply for grants.
“There are some grants that the Dempsey Center is well suited for, but since we have to apply under Central Maine Healthcare, lots of times those grants don’t look as appropriate to those grantors,” she says.
